The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In general, a hybrid vehicle controls an on/off operation of an engine based on an operating state such as a vehicle driving condition, a high-voltage battery charge/discharge state, a cooling state, a vehicle check state, and an air conditioning state by heating control. In the case of a hybrid vehicle, cooling control or heating control is performed for air conditioning. The heating control is a scheme of controlling the air conditioning by using the driving heat of the engine as an energy source. When the air condition gets worse, the hybrid vehicle controls the on/off operations of the engine based on a preset air conditioning condition without regard to the battery state or the driving condition of the hybrid vehicle.
However, since the engine operation by the air conditioning condition during the heating control is performed separately from the engine efficiency, the number of times the engine is turned on and off increases as well as an amount of the non-driven fuel consumption for heating control in a cold weather.